Customer Reviews

Selling Out: Quantum Gravity Book Two: Quantum Gravity Bk. 2 (Gollancz S.F.)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If Amazon would let me I'd give this book a 4.5. The culture and descriptions of Demonia were great. Sometimes I felt that if I closed my eyes I'd be able to see Demonia perfectly. I really like that her cultures for each race are so different and that she didn't make the mistake of "humanizing" all her races like so many other authors. If it takes a sci-fi author to write some really great futuristic/urban fantasy I say please, please, please!

There's only two problems I can see anyone having with this book and the first isn't all that bad once you get used to it. Instead of just following Lila like in the first book we are following Lila, Zal, and Malichi and for most of the book they're all in different worlds which is a little more confusing than just changing characters. The bigger problem, to me anyway, is that there are a lot of loose ends and no real ending in this book. A few loose ends are to be expected in a series book, but I like there to be a clear ending to every book. Don't get me wrong, this isn't one of those cliffhanger endings either, but after stirring up that much trouble, solving hardly any of it, and then turning a few pages only to find the end was a letdown.

Robson's second book in the Ultimate Gravity series fulfills some of the promise of the first book in the series, but also accentuates the first book's flaws. First, the good: Robson's description of the Demon world and her continued work flushing out the details of the various races in her universe is excellent. The Demons are particularly well crafted and the description of their life-cycle, from junior civil servants to stone statutes is both funny and a particularly great point of mass character development. The scene towards the beginning with Malichi and Zal playing cards is also particularly well imagined. Overall, Robson does a great job of continuing to develop her unique and interesting universe. However, where the first book got away with a scattered and not particularly well-articulated plot because of the uniqueness of the world that was introduced, in the second book, the failings of plot tend to overwhelm even Robson's particularly well-conceived setting. Robson's plot is massive and unwieldy for the amount of time she allots to it. She embarks upon multiple plots for multiple characters and then seems to run out of space and everything is wrapped up quickly enough to give the reader whiplash. Robson is clearly positioning herself for another book and the second books of series often seem like placeholders, but that does not excuse the ill-conceived pacing and fragmentation of this plot. A partial fix would have been to continue to focus on telling the story from the character that Robson seems to understand best, Lila Black, as opposed to splitting the story among multiple narrators. I still loved Demons, but I hope that Robson's next book matches the imagination of her setting with a well formed and thoughtful plot.

This is the second book in the Quantum Gravity series by Justina Robson. I liked the first book really well, but I wasn't as impressed with this book. The plot was too hacked up, and the storylines that the different characters followed seemed unrelated. Despite that, the world is still really intriguing and the characters re-joined at the end of the book making me want to read more about them. I listened to this on audio book, and while the audio book was okay, it wasn't the greatest reading I've ever heard. The reader had trouble doing male voices without making them sound annoying.

Lila Black is sent to Demonia on a mission to find how Zal became part demon. Meanwhile Zal gets stuck in the elemental realm (after having words about Lila with Malichi over an odd game of cards) and spends time there trying to get out. Malichi journeys to the Interstitial realm to learn more about ghosts. Eventually they all end up back together, but how all this is related to the problem of the cracks in the six different worlds is all a mystery to me.

I had some trouble understanding what this book was getting at. Lila didn't do much in Demonia besides get into trouble and meet an imp; okay so she gets into *a lot* of trouble. Meanwhile Zal (who is on his way to meet her) ends up in the Elemental Realm and spends a lot of time there trying to get back out without dying. Zal's part was kind of boring and dreamy and really only had one important reason for happening as far as I could tell. Totally unrelated to all of this Malichi ends up in the in-between Interstitial space learning about ghosts. If all of this stuff sounds unrelated, well, it pretty much was. I am fairly certain that everything that happened will play a major part in later books, but for this book it was mainly just disconnected and random.

The way Robson switched between Lila, Zal, and Malichi was hard to follow. She stopped at odd places in one character's story and then switched to another character. I just found the switches to be unnatural and, at points, it made the story hard to follow. I also got kind of sick of Lila's constant whining. It was crazy how she followed what the Agency told her blindly; although this is finally explained late in the book. Zal and Lila barely see each other the whole book and that was also disappointing. Another odd thing was that the game between Zal and Lila (which took up a good portion of Book 1) was rarely mentioned in this book.

There was also a lot that was done well in this book. The descriptions of Demon culture were very interesting. Where "Keeping it Real' focused on the Elven world, the majority of this book is about Demonia. Also you get to learn a lot more about both Zal's and Lila's past. It was great to finally meet some people from their past and learn more about what shaped their backgrounds and drives them. Teesil was an awesome addition to the story, as the lead assassin of Demonia, and I look forward to him being a bigger part of the next book.

The ending of the story was absolutely fantastic; I was impressed with how Robson brought the characters together and set things up for a great book 3. Really the ending was the most exciting part of this book and is the only thing making me interested in reading the next book of the series.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about this book. Some things were awesome, some things not so much. I will read the third book because this book seemed to be setting things up for a great story in the third book.

This product doesn't disappoint. It leave you hanging for the next book while answering most of the lingering questions from the first novel. It does an excellent job of raising new questions, yet it still helps with clues. It's a wild ride from start to finish that never slows down. The ending will leave you stunned with joy and suspicions about some of the companions. So grab a copy with your favorite snack and sit down for a day of the most mind blowing aura filling rock 'n roll from the next realm!

Justina Robson's "Selling Out," the second in her Quantum Gravity series, sends human-cyborg special agent Lila Black back into action. This time her clueless leader, Cara Delaware, dispatches her on a mission to the land of Demonia where, as you might well suppose, Demons dwell, and where or so Delaware hopes, Lila will learn more about the origins of the half-elf, half-demon Zal, who Lila bodyguarded in the first book in the series, "Keeping it Real," which absolutely must be read first.

Although Delaware has not prepared her well for the mission, Lila nevertheless manages to thwart an assassination attempt or two, acquires her very own imp, and continues to have the spirit of the elf Tath dwelling within her. Oh, and she reconnects with her sister Maxine.

And where is Zal all this time? Off on a mission to save Lila, who, well, wait and see.

Don't expect it to make much in the way of sense (I'll tip my hat to you if you can figure out what the business with the ship and the ghost-hunters is all about), because with every book she writes it becomes increasingly clear that Ms. Robson inhabits a universe all her own (which is far from a bad thing), but if you relax and enjoy the ride, you should have a grand time.

And there's always Ms. Robson's sly prose to admire. Here, Zal samples a drink: "it seemed to be rum and Coke, and that was old enough as a cocktail to be a ghostly item. He breathed over the aromatic liquid and then hesitated, tired, euphoric, thirsty. "Can I drink this without turning into a ... thing? Or getting stuck here for eternity?"

" `Probably not,' the Ereba said."

Does that intrigue?

I've just finished 'Selling Out' and have mixed feelings on it. On one hand, it's quite different to most fantasy out there. Although it features several tried and true races from urban fantasy (elves, demons, faeries and ghosts, etc) rather than treading out more original ground, I thought that this book breathed new life into the old, worn stereotypes. Selling Out focuses on demon culture in the world of Demonia, which I found very interesting, unusual and refreshingly free from moral sentiments from the author.

What lets this book down is the plot, or rather lack of a plot. It started out with promise as the main character was sent out on a spy's mission to gather intelligence on a specific target... but she did very little to pursue it. Similarly, the other major characters spent more time meandering around on whims than having any overall goal in mind. I found the characters to be very reactive rather than proactive, and that put me off. It made me wonder what the point of the story was. Was our spy even going to bother completing her mission? Was she going to do anything about the vendetta hanging over her head? And were the other major characters ever planning to do anything with their lives other than aimlessly exist and react to things? Who knew?

I admit I struggled to finish this. Despite the richness of the worlds and the unsolved mysteries dangling promisingly on invisible strings ahead of me, the aimless plot just got too boring by the halfway point. I finished it in the hope that at least a couple of questions would be answered, but instead more just popped up in the end. Ordinarily this might make me want to read the sequel, but if it's going to be as confused and meandering as this volume, I doubt I'll bother. At times this story promised exciting action, but didn't deliver. I was especially disappointed in the main character's almost total lack of reaction to the attempts on her life and the promise of further action. As for her original mission, it was barely referred to most of the time. She seemed incapable of making any important decisions when it was most necessary, and always stood back to let other characters act for her. I was so disappointed that the author wrote in this amazing, overpowered cyborg character with huge potential, only to waste her in scene after scene of hardly anything happening.

Likewise, I was very disappointed with how little was revealed about any of the other major characters. Most of them had tantalising secrets yet to be revealed, and I was hanging out for the answers... which never came. I don't mind some information being held back, but the best stories balance their secrets and suspense with fairly regular revelations. In 'Selling Out', it was almost entirely unresolved.

Overall, this isn't a bad example of the urban fantasy genre. It's fairly original, has some great cultural observations, and has reams of potential. However, this potential was largely wasted due to too much inaction by the characters and a general lack of plot direction.

Plot Summary: Super cyborg agent Lila Black has a new mission; to infiltrate Demonia and learn how her boyfriend Zal became half-elf and half-demon. Lila is having more and more issues with her job, and she's ill equipped to navigate the perplexing social rules within Demonia. In her short time there, Lila attracts assassination attempts, duel invitations, an annoying imp, and an unwanted suitor. When Zal tries to sneak away from Otopia to help Lila, he accidentally ends up in a different dimension that is decidedly hostile to most life forms.

I can't think of another series that mixes sci-fi and fantasy quite so well, in addition to creating such interesting characters. Lila is a conflicted lump of metal and plastic who is far too valuable to way too many people for all the wrong reasons. Fortunately she has a few powerful allies in her corner, and it's probably no coincidence that none of them are human. Her own government built her with less than honorable intent, without her consent, and still Lila wonders why she's so unhappy. Sometimes she's not so bright. Zal is equally fascinating, as a hybrid elf-demon who is shunned by the elves, and his smart aleck attitude hides a multitude of secrets. Only one thing seems clear - that Lila and Zal are meant to be together.

Lila deals with a powerful amount of angst in Selling Out. She's still reeling from decisions she made during the first book, like murdering Dar to maintain her cover, while everyone in Demonia seems intent on stripping away the comfortable white-lies that keep her sane. It was bad enough when Tath took up residence in her chest, but now she also has an annoying imp who pokes at her most sensitive secrets with irritating ease. It's like watching a volcano under intense pressure, and it is satisfying when Lila blows up.

I suppose my main regret is that Lila and Zal didn't spent much time together, but it was still entertaining how the story bounced back and forth between their parallel adventures. I admit that my grasp on the complex rules that govern these worlds is far from perfect, but at least I can't complain that the series isn't sufficiently rich with details. I'm in deep now, and there's no turning back. I'm looking forward to reading the next book, Going Under (Quantum Gravity, Book 3).

KEEPING IT REAL introduced Otopia, formerly known as Earth, after the Quantum Bomb, formerly known as a particle accelerator in Texas, somehow blew out the borders between Otopia and several other worlds that, strangely enough, correspond pretty well to realms spoken of in ancient Earth myths and legends. Otopian Agent Lila Black, a bionic woman reconstructed in the aftermath of a nasty encounter with some elvish reactionaries in Alfheim, was sent out on her first mission, a mission that was supposed to be a simple matter of babysitting a rock-star elf. Instead, Lila found herself on a desperate mission, deep behind enemy lines, attempting to rescue a celebrity in distress and save the elves from themselves.

In SELLING OUT, Lila's handlers want her to travel to Demonia, world of the demons, in order to find out how Zal (the rock-star elf) managed to become part demon. She learns pretty quickly that he had to go through Hell, and pretty soon after that she learns where Hell is: you take it with you everywhere you go. SELLING OUT is mostly about Lila trying to figure out who she is, where she fits into the world, and how she can get out of her own personal Hell. And then there's Teazle, the demon assassin who attaches himself to Lila after she kills his brother; Zal, who has a really bad trip; Lila's parents, who take an even worse trip; Lila's sister Max, who gives her a hard time; and disembodied elf necromancer Tath, who has a number of wry observations to make.

After reading the mixed reviews of the first two books in this series, I was worried about their quality. I was pleased to find that both were creative, smart, and enjoyable. The first is more fun than the second, mainly because it is an introduction to a whole new world and a grand adventure to boot. The second is more introspective and more complicated, deepening our understanding of the protagonist and her universe. Both are worth reading.

I have just finished the first three Quantum Gravity books and I have pre-ordered the fourth. Justina Robson is a marvel. In 40 years of reading SF, very few authors have delighted me or kept me guessing about what was going to happen next as Robson.

Robson hasn't so much blended SF and fantasy tropes as she's smashed them together in a supercollider. She has filled her story with myth, legend, deep metaphysical exploration, gestalt psychology, scientific speculation and sweet sexuality without slowing down the roller coaster ride.

Selling Out is the second book in Justina Robson's Quantum Gravity series.

Although the book does do some backfill to allow readers to start here, this is really intended for readers who enjoyed the first volume in Quantum Gravity, Keeping it Real. The world after the Quantum Bomb, with Earth (Otopia) rubbing up uneasily against realms of Faerie, Hell, Elementals and Death. Lila Black, cyborg, lover of a half elf, half demon rock star, now with a necromancer's soul inside of her, is back on the case.

This time, she gets to go to hell. Here, she finds Demonia not to be exactly what she expects, even with the assassination attempts, marriage proposals, political dealings, and very strange customs.

In the meantime, her boyfriend, Zal, has adventures of his own, including an inadvertent trip to the deadly Elemental realms.

More crisp writing. Snazzy world building. Excellent characters who grow and change. And the continuing hintings of an building, big mystery that affects all of the realms in her fractural, fascinating landscape. What's not to like?

But do try Keeping it Real first, and see if Robson's brand of near future science fiction/fantasy alchemy is for you.